Honeycomb cores are used in a variety of aircraft components, such as engine nacelles, to minimize material use and therefore minimize weight and cost. These honeycomb cores may be made of metals or composite materials. Manufacturing methods to form metal honeycomb cores can be costly and time consuming. For example, diffusion bonding of titanium honeycomb cores can take in excess of eight hours inside a vacuum chamber. Furthermore, such vacuum chambers can be quite large and costly. After diffusion bonding is complete, these titanium honeycomb cores typically require additional forming or bending operations to achieve a desired shape and contour. This additional forming adds to the already lengthy manufacturing time and subjects the titanium honeycomb cores to further strain, potentially leading to crushing, disbonding, or buckling of the core.
Thus, there is a need for a method of forming metal honeycomb core that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.